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Auto Insurers Are Making Waves Online


Progressive

SAN MATEO, CA--Kctober 26, 2011: Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote ® Systems , today announced the results of the Keynote Competitive Research Industry Study examining U.S. Auto Insurance websites. In the 2011 Auto Insurance study Progressive took first place for Best Overall Customer Experience and GEICO came in first for Best Overall Technical Quality. As a group, auto insurers obtained the highest average Overall Customer Experience scores in the seven years of the study, reflecting dramatic investments in developing and enhancing online direct sales and marketing over that time. The entire study is available for immediate purchase. To request more information please visit: http://bit.ly/2011autoinsure.

“We've also found that, on the whole, quote and issue sites have evolved from intimidating, unintuitive processes that created hurdles to acquisition to smooth processes that now compare favorably with what we're observing in other studies with banking and loan applications.”

Winners of Keynote Competitive Research studies are invited to participate in the company's Online Excellence Program which recognizes the "best of the best" websites as ranked in the studies. The rankings are based on responses from real users, who were observed as they accomplished tasks on each of the sites studied, as well as real data collected through Keynote website monitoring to assess the technical quality of the sites. For each study, Keynote recognizes the companies with the overall top ranking, as well as those exhibiting excellence in specific categories.

For the Customer Experience portion of the study, Keynote observed and conducted online interviews with 2,275 prospective auto insurance purchasers as they interacted with the websites of a total of 10 leading auto insurance sites (225 people per site): 21st Century Insurance, Allstate, Esurance, Farmers Insurance, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Progressive, State Farm and Travelers.

For the 'Technical Quality' portion of the study, Keynote performed 6,000 total measurements for each site, for a total of 60,000 total measurements, from 12 locations in the U.S. The measurements were taken during peak hours (8:00 AM-Midnight EST), every day during the period from August 2, 2011-August 26, 2011.

Keynote Competitive Research produces leading industry research using the company's commercially available Web performance monitoring and real user experience testing products. Keynote regularly evaluates the current state of online customer experience, technical quality (responsiveness/reliability) and implementation of best practices on leading websites across a wide variety of vertical markets including financial services, automotive, media/entertainment, retail, travel and technology.

More Information about the Customer Experience Rankings for US Rental Car Websites

For the Customer Experience component of the study, Keynote sent 225 U.S. resident Internet users to each of the 10 websites. The online panelists were asked to explore the website's homepage and then navigate around the rest of the site in order to briefly learn about the benefits of getting auto insurance through that provider as well as what makes them different from their competitors. Panelists were then asked to learn about the auto insurance offerings available on the site and obtain a policy quote for their automobile(s), taking time to learn about coverage options, discounts, claims service, special benefits, financial strength/ratings, etc. Finally, panelists were asked to use the site to find an agent in their area, or to learn how to contact a representative via phone or email. After completing each of the individual tasks, panelists were asked a range of relevant questions about their experiences accomplishing each of the assigned tasks.

The study revealed that when tested by actual users Progressive.com offers the strongest Overall Customer Experience, placing first in all three indices that the Overall Customer Experience Index is comprised of: Brand Impact, Conversion Impact and Customer Satisfaction. Other key findings include:

  • Product Satisfaction continues to be the most important aspect of the customer experience, impacting prospects' brand perceptions and their likelihood to become a customer;
  • Good visual design and a streamlined quote and research process remain the second and third most important drivers, respectively, of a positive overall customer experience;
  • Progressive is perceived as most "friendly," "helpful," "innovative," and "intelligent," and least "overly bureaucratic;"
  • 'Privacy & Security' and 'Shopping Guidance' became increasing influential factors in determining overall customer experience in 2011.

"The experiences of over 2000 real online users across 10 sites showed that online users are sensitive to not just price but also to the value they're receiving for that price. Often, we're able to see how the website itself is playing a determinative role in how prospects perceive both price and value," said Christopher Musto, general manager of the Keynote Competitive Research group at Keynote. "We've also found that, on the whole, quote and issue sites have evolved from intimidating, unintuitive processes that created hurdles to acquisition to smooth processes that now compare favorably with what we're observing in other studies with banking and loan applications."

More Information about the Technical Quality Rankings in the Auto Insurance Website Study

In addition to evaluating customer experience with its panel of actual users, the Keynote study also examined two broad aspects of technical quality: responsiveness and reliability. Responsiveness comprises: high speed response, DSL (midband) response, response time consistency, geographic uniformity and load handling, while reliability is comprised of availability and outages. For the 'Technical Quality' portion of the study, using measurement computers located in 12 cities across the U.S., Keynote measured a typical transaction of starting at the site's home page, navigating to the auto insurance home page, requesting information about an auto insurance policy and beginning the quote process. The transaction stopped on each site where user identifying information was requested.

Based on the thousands of transactions monitored over the course of the study, GEICO.com set the standard for both Responsiveness (or speed), and Reliability, and was named the winner for Overall Technical Quality.

"Based on tens of thousands of measured transactions that Keynote performed for this study GEICO.com set the standard for technical excellence, scoring high in both Reliability ranking and overall Responsiveness," said Ben Rushlo, director of performance management at Keynote.

In order to collect the Technical Quality data Keynote used its Transaction Perspective product, the leading real browser-based service for measuring and monitoring website performance from the end user perspective. With Keynote Transaction Perspective the company examines website performance from multiple geographic locations by simulating users clicking through transactions on a website. Keynote collected more than 6,000 data points that detailed each of the sites' technical performance in terms of page responsiveness and reliability.

The study is available for purchase from Keynote and comes with extensive analysis of brand impact, acquisition impact, reliability and responsiveness and the factors that drive sites' performance in these areas. Clients will receive an executive presentation, extensive back-up charts and illustrations, and online access to all clickstreams, verbatims, question responses and panel facts for all panelists at all sites for all tasks and can download and use this data in their own research.

About Keynote Systems

Keynote® Systems, Inc., is the global leader in Internet and mobile cloud monitoring and testing. The company maintains the world's largest on-demand performance monitoring and testing infrastructure for web and mobile sites comprised of over 4,000 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 275 locations around the world that enable companies to continuously improve the online and mobile experience. Known as €˜The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority', Keynote offers three market-leading product platforms:

Keynote Perspective® provides on-demand performance monitoring for Web and mobiles sites to online portals, e-commerce sites and B2B sites. Over 2000 customers rely on Keynote Perspective services to know precisely how their websites, content, and applications perform on actual browsers, networks and mobile devices.

Keynote DeviceAnywhere is an enterprise-class, cloud-based, mobile application lifecycle management (ALM) testing & quality assurance platform. It is used by over 1000 mobile developers and enterprises to deliver mobile applications, content and services faster while reducing downtime and testing costs.

Keynote SIGOS offers active end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) testing and monitoring solutions for mobile, fixed and VoIP communications. Its' SITE and Global Roamer products are used by over 200 network operators, content providers, carriers and regulators in over 100 countries worldwide.

Keynote's 4,000 customers represent top Internet and mobile companies and include American Express, AT&T, Disney, eBay, E*TRADE, Expedia, Google, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

Keynote®, DataPulse®, CustomerScope®, Keynote CE Rankings®, Keynote Customer Experience Rankings®, Perspective®, Keynote Red Alert®, Keynote Traffic Perspective®, Keynote WebEffective®, The Internet Performance Authority®, MyKeynote® , SIGOS®, SITE®, Keynote, The Mobile & Internet Performance Authority and Keynote FlexUse are trademarks or registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2011 Keynote Systems, Inc.